sparring. >> at that point there was no opposition. what i found so interesting too, last night if republicans would get out of the way everything would happen. so many people in this country want bipartisanship. maybe we'll hear about that in the presidential debate. bill: is that tuesday night. keep it here on fox news channel. have a great weekend. purple friday. >> take care. jon: right now on this friday, brand new stories and breaking news. jenna: including the fierce fight in kentucky on two men who want to be vice president. with the dust settling we have new reaction to their debate. disturbing developments in the search for the 10-year-old colorado girl who vanished on her way to school. what the fbi is asking people to look for now. plus the latest in the growing meningitis outbreak we've been paying such close attention to. it is all happening now. jenna: very happy friday to you, everybody, i'm jenna lee.

jon: and i'm jon scott. the race for the white house intensifies after sparks fly at the one and only vice-presidential debate. more on that in a moment. first let's see where the presidential contenders are today. president obama off the campaign trail, spending the day at the white house. just over an hour from now, governor romney attends a rally in the battle ground state of virginia. the latest "real clear politics" poll average shows the president holding a very slim lead over governor romney in a head-to-head matchup. four years ago, president obama won that state. 13 electoral votes up for grabs in virginia with 270 the magic number needed to win but last night all eyes were on kentucky, home of the only vice-presidential debate this time around. the faceoff between vice president joe biden and congressman paul ryan got combative at times. the vice president raising eyebrows openly laughing, grinning, often interrupting his challenger, a display many republicans called

disrespectful. with so much on the line both men got in their jobs. >> romney is a good man. he cares about 100% of americans in this country. and with respect to that quote, i think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth [laughter] it is empty mattally possible. it's been done before. precisely what we're prosing. >> it has never been done before. >> been done a couple times. jack kennedy lowered tax rates. >> oh, now you're jack kennedy. jon: they touched on the biggest issues for americans jobs and the economy. their messages directed at middle class voters. >> can you declare anything off limits? >> mortgage loopholes. higher deductions, from higher income people. >> can you guaranty no one making less than 100,000 have a mortgage deduction impacted? >> this tax as million small businesses. he keeps trying to make you think some movie star, hedge fund guy.

>> 97% of the small businesses make less than $250,000 a year. would the no be affected. >> this tax is a million people. a million small businesses. >> does it tax 97% of the american businesses? >> it taxes -- >> foreign policy. >> want to get people out of poverty in the middle class for self-sufficiency. we believe in upward mobility. that is we'll push for in romney administration. >> we saved a million jobs. i never met two guys more down on america across the board. we're told everything is going bad. 5.2 million new jobs, private sector jobs. jon: so, foreign policy also a major theme in this debate. the first question, focusing on the murders of those four americans in libya september 11th. >> this benghazi issue would be a tragedy in and of itself but unfortunately it's indicative after broader problem. that is what we're watching on our tv screens is the

unraveling the obama foreign policy. which is making more chaotic and us less safe. >> what it was, it was a tragedy, martha. chris stevens was one of our best, we lost three other brave americans. i can make absolutely two commitments to you and all the american people tonight. one, we will find and bring justice the men who did this. and secondly, we will get to the bottom of it and whatever, wherever the facts lead us, wherever they lead us, we will make clear to the american public, because whatever mistakes are made will not be made again. jenna: let's see with libya for a moment now. last night vice president biden said the obama administration was not told of requests for more security in the run-up to the terror attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. republicans pounced on that claim pointing to testimony the day before from the state department officials that said there had been earlier requests for more security staffing. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is live in

washington with more on all this. the catherine. >> reporter: good morning. on libya the vice president blamed the intelligence community for bad assessments that informed the administration public and controversyal statements about the attack and suggested the white house was unaware for more requests on the ground in libya. >> we weren't told they wanted more security. we did not know they wanted more security again. by the way, at the time we were told exactly, we said exactly what the intelligence community towed us. that they knew. that was the assessment. and as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view. that's why i said we will get to the bottom of this. >> reporter: but during the four hour hearing wednesday before the house government oversight committee witnesses from the state department, diplomatic security division and the military team leader on the ground said there were repeated requests for assistance, a witness recounting one of many frustrating exchanges with washington. >> if i could add to, that was, i told the same regional director, in a

telephone call in benghazi after he contacted me when i asked for 12 agents. his response to that was, you're asking for the sun, the moon and the stars. >> reporter: we asked the office of the director of national intelligence, the nation's top intelligence officer, for a response to the vice president's claim that the intelligence was bad. i know from earlier conversations that this is not going to go down very well, jenna. jenna: we look forward to the developments on that and the potential response as well, catherine. in the meantime we're learning about a surveillance video from the consulate. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: we confirmed through two sources details of security camera video from the consulate in benghazi in the hands of the fbi the surveillance video was characterized to fox, limited and 15 minutes in length. it is described as grainy in many places hard to decipher. it shows a group of armed men pouring into the consulate. initially time was spent whether the men gathered were militants or part of a

protest. footage to the gates of the consulate show men in profile. efforts are trying to match them to known jihadists. the attack was considered terrorism. the video supports the view that there was no evidence of a protest before the attack. a point reinforced by the chairman of the government oversight committee on wednesday. >> contrary to early assertions by the administration, let's understand, there was no protest, and cameras reveal that the state department, the fbi and others have that video. >> reporter: we first reported on september 17th that there was no demonstration at that consulate. therefore the narrative that it was somehow a demonstration that was hijacked by militants or that it spun out of control is just incorrect. jenna. jenna: more on this as we get it, catherine. thank you very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. jenna: certainly more to this story. of course libya was not the only issue discussed in a debate weighted heavily toward foreign policy as we knew it was going to be.

iran, syria, afghanistan very hot topics. general jack keen joining us. retired four-star general and retired chief of the army. he is fox news military analyst. peter brookes also with us, senior fellow for national security affairs at the heritage foundation and former cia officer, which, peter, is something we really want to talk about considering the intelligence, questions if you will, when it comes to libya. let's start it there. would there be any scenario where the state department would know about requests for extra security in libya but the white house wouldn't know? >> that's certainly a possibility. i mean you never know to what level this went but there's so many unanswered questions here, general that -- jenna, about this issue. we have conflicting stories coming out of congress, the administration. five days after the attacks still said it was a protest. probably wouldn't even be calling it a terrorist attack if the director of the national counterterrorism center hadn't testified to that

effect on capitol hill. they probably wouldn't have told us there were no demonstrations if congress hadn't had a hearing this week and state was forced to divulge that situation. this just a mess. it is a national disgrace. jenna: what is the effect of that, peter on intelligence gathering communities around the world and overall confidence and continuity between different departments of government? >> i think the intelligence community is being scapegoated. we're not hearing anything else but seems last week with the press release of the director for national intelligence he is taking the blame. i don't know what will happen, hopefully people like catherine herridge will find out what really happened but i'm very, very skeptical about this. especially senior official five days after the event saying it was a movie and a demonstration. i just don't get it. jenna: my money is on catherine, that's for sure, getting to the bottom of this. certainly as we watched her reporting over the last couple weeks. general keane, your thoughts on this overall and what it means for us the american people and our national

security. do you think we're hearing enough about the bigger ideas, about what we're going to do now in libya, from either side, from either party? >> well, number one, i think we have seen a real issue here is assendensy on al qaeda in northern africa. we had intel reports on that for some time. this is absolutely a manifestation of that. we truly have to relook our policy as it pertains to the radical islam in the middle east. they're trying to remove the united states from the region. it appears our policy is compliant with that. we're disengaging from the region geopolitically, and materially. troops out of iraq. end date for afghanistan as well. our rather feckless policy dealing with iran. strategically we do have issue. jenna: you think both parties, general, when you say we, everyone in washington is basically not doing the job when it comes to knowing the policy or the right policy moving forward? >> well i think it's on the

table now. it is constructed to see that, that the current policy, unstated of disengagement from the middle east and pivoting to the east or the asian-pacific area is now on under question and needs to be discussed and needs to be debated. i think clearly it is headed in the wrong direction. that is why you see al qaeda filling in the vacuum. jenna: talk a little bit about iran. that was a big topic last night. certainly a big topic in the news over the last, well, couple of years in fact. here is just a quick sound bite, if you will from the debate last night. let's take a listen to that. >> let's all calm down a little bit here. iran is more isolated today than when we took office. it was on the ascendency when we took office. it is totally isolated. i don't know what world you guys are in. >> thanks heavens we have the sanctions in place. in spite of their opposition. >> oy god. >> they have given 20 waivers to this sanction and all i have to point to are the results. they're four years closer toward a nuclear weapon. jenna: peter, can both be

true? can iran be more isolated and also closer to a nuclear weapon? >> yes. you know the fact is what joe biden said is true but irrelevant. it the objective of stopping an iranian nuclear program. there are a lot more sanctions on iran than ever before. they are probably more isolated than ever before. but the fact of the matter those centrifuges are still spinning. they have more low-enriched uranium that could be used for a bomb and the program has not changed course, jenna. you can do all you want but you're not getting any closer to your objective. people today are very skeptical about whether diplomacy and sanctions will help. we've been negotiating with iran on their nuclear program for almost 10 years now. i think it was einstein said, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is one definition of insanity. the sanctions, look, they are probably are biting but are they going to make or are they going to change iran's occurs on nuclear weapons? i don't see that happening at all.

so what the vice president said may have been true but also irrelevant to the objective stopping the iranian nuclear program. jenna: general, do you think there is a clear enough message to the military and really to the world when we would actually get involved militarily when it came to iran? seems there is some debate what paul ryan was saying about that and vice president biden's thoughts? >> this i do know. iranians believe a couple things when it comes to the israeli option. number one they believe the israeli military option is not sufficient. they are not concerned about it. number two they don't believe the united states is credible when it puts the military option on the table. the iranians clearly believe the united states has no intention of exercising a military option. that is why it is full speed ahead in its nuclear weapons program. jenna: general keane, peter brookes. thank you. jon: new developments in the search of a missing colorado girl. why the fbi wants the

public's help in the case of 10-year-old jessica ridgeway. most presidential campaigns trying to capitalize what they see as their strong points after last night's big vice-presidential showdown. who came out on top and did the heated exchanges cross the line? we'll ask both sides, fair and balanced just ahead it's swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth to add delicious flavor to your skillet dish in just one stir. mmm! [ female announcer ] cook, meet compliments. get recipes at flavorboost.com.

jon: well after last night's spirited debate between the vice-president deposition nominees both sides are working hard to characterize that showdown. we have back-to-back reaction now from the two campaigns. first up, ben labolt, the national press secretary for obama for america. let's try to stay on topic and avoid the talking points, ben. what did you think was vice president's biden's best moment last night? >> well i think you had a lot of strong ones. i think the takeaway last night he exposed extreme risk that romney ryan economics would pose for the middle class. he pressed congressman ryan to reassure the middle class

their taxes wouldn't go up if they passed that $5 trillion tax cut for wealthiest americans. and he couldn't do it. congressman ryan when pressed about his defense spending proposal flat-out lied about it. the fact they proposed a $2 trillion increase in defense spending beyond the level the pentagon asked for which would explode the deficit. and he wouldn't commit to the 2014 timetable to bring our troops home from afghanistan. and so i think time and time again the vice president laid out the choice for the middle class in this election and was very effective in doing so. jon: time and time again the vice president interrupted, interjected, laughed, guf fawed, that kind of thing. was that appropriate first of all? was it intentional? >> well, republicans like to praise happy warriors. that is what we saw from the vice president last night. he caught out the brazen attempt by the romney-ryan campaign to try to rewrite their kick the -- ticket and

their positions in the final 30 days of the race. suddenly they don't know anything about the $5 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest they proposed. suddenly they talk like they cover people with preexisting conditions under their health care plan. we know if you're between jobs or between plans you wouldn't be covered under their plan. the vice president is authentic. what you see is what you get. he didn't bring a bunch of canned political talking points like congressman ryan did. he reached a lot of americans in doing so. jon: all right. this was this moment when vice president biden was asked about taxes and he side this. >> okay. on to taxes. if your ticket is elected who will pay more in taxes, who will pay less? we're starting with vice president biden for two minutes. >> middle class will pay less and people making a million dollars or more will begin to contribute slightly more. let me give you one concrete example. continuation of the bush tax cuts. we're arguing that the bush tax cuts for the wealthy should be allowed to expire. of the bush tax cuts for the

wealthy, $800 million, billion dollars of that goes to people making a minimum of a million dollars. >> minimum of million dollars. isn't that incorrect? >> well, he was providing an example of who we asked to do more to pay their fair share. we believe millionaires should pay their fair share in order to reduce the deficit. jon: but isn't it true that the president's, isn't it true that the president's tax plans calls for increasing taxes on those, $250,000? >> he was providing an example of who he asked to pay their fair share in order to reduce the deficit. if you make $250,000, or less, your taxes won't go up. that is contrast with governor romney and congressman ryan who charged the average middle class family with kids $2,000 in order to pay for their tax cut for the wealthiest americans. jon: i want to play a quick clip from my colleague chris wallace and get your reaction. >> i think i have watched almost every presidential

and vice-presidential debate since the first four kennedy-nixon debates in 1960, thinking back over the last few minutes i don't believe i have ever seen a debate in which one participant was openly disrespectful of the other as biden was to paul ryan tonight. that's what it was. you can talk about the smirks, smiles, head shaking, the mugging, it was openly, contemptuous and disrespectful. jon: ben, chris wallace has been in washington a long time. as he said, covered a lot of these races. what is your response? >> you know, governor romney has spent the entire campaign saying that he would stand up to china and apparently now governor romney and congressman ryan can't handle a little bit of laughing an smiling? that seems preposterous to me. jon: all right. ben labolt, campaign secretary, i'm sorry press secretary for obama for america campaign. ben, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. jon: we'll have the romney side in just a moment.

jenna: look forward. maybe we'll play that sound and see what andrea has to say about all that as well. new information in the search for a missing 10-year-old girl. what investigators are now saying about a body found earlier this week. we have the latest on that coming up you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more pcessed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i kn is better nutrition.

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jon: fair and balanced let's get reaction from the other side regarding last night's vice-presidential debate. andrea saul, national press secretary for the romney campaign we'll give you equal time, andrea. what was your candidate's best moment? >> i thought paul ryan had a great debate. he won the debate because he laid out for the american people how he and mitt romney will get 12 million americans back to work. i heard what ben said earlier. the reason vice president biden smirked his way through the debate because he can't explain to the american people how the next

four years will be any better than the last four years and i don't think people across the country that watched his attitude, are going to take kindly to the fact that he seems so bemused at these serious issues we face. jon: both campaigns are hearing criticism of their candidates this morning. one criticism directed toward congressman ryan has to do with something he said about bashar assad and this administration's reaction. i want to play that and get your thoughts. >> we should have spoken out right away when the green revolution was up and starting, when the mullahs in iran were attacking their people. we should not have called bashar assad a reformer when turning russian-provided guns on their own people. jon: the associated press did a fact check and said that nobody in the administration called bashar assad a reformer. >> that is inaccurate. that is inaccurate. hillary clinton, hillary clinton was the one who

called assad a reformer. paul ryan was correct when he said that. the main foreign policy point to take away from last night's debate was the fact that vice president biden continues to mislead the american people what happened in benghazi. we saw sworn testimony this week that said the state department officials in benghazi had requested extra security. last night vice president biden said that was not true. they had not heard that. when the first attacks were made, the administration went out and said that it was because of protests, because of a youtube video. then we found out that wasn't true. so today the obama administration has a lot of questions to answer, why they're misleading the american people and who is right in these different circumstances. jon: and then there was this exchange with moderator martha raddatz from abc about taxes. i want to play you a clip of that. >> in terms of style, you know, joe biden is joe biden. he is authentic and he is real and he is straightforward and he --.

jon: that was actually, that was my mistake. but i did, maybe we can go back and play that again because, you had david axelrod saying essentially congressman ryan was working off of cue cards, seeming to suggest -- let's play that bite from david axelrod. >> in terms of style, you know, joe biden is joe biden. he is authentic and he is real. and he is straightforward, and he says what he thinks and he says what he means. and he spoke from a lifetime of experience and congressman ryan basically spoke from the cue cards that he was handed in prep. i think that showed up. jon: your response? >> paul ryan knows the ins and outs of budget. knows the ins and outs of foreign policy last night like the back his hand. clearly that came across. with vice president biden we him smirking the whole time because he couldn't defend the obama campaign's policy

or the obama administration's policies over the last four years. and he offered absolutely no plans to change things moving forward. jon: there were the interare up shuns by congress -- i'm sorry, by vice president biden, interrupting more often paul ryan's thoughts. your response to that? >> again, that was because he didn't have any plans to present. so he was trying to create these distractions. and, paul ryan talked about the fact that we're going to get, that he and mitt romney will get 12 million americans back to work. he laid out very specific ideas how they will reform the tax code. how they will reduce spending. we saw vice president biden last night. they have no plans for spending. he misled on benghazi. they have no way to create jobs and talk about how they're going to get americans back to work. he said that numbers are going in the right direction. we created less jobs in the past three months than we did the month before. jon: andrea saul, from the

ryan campaign. romney-ryan campaign i should say. thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. and we gave both sides equal time. thank you. >> thank you. jenna: a warning from our nation's defense secretary about a growing threat. what he says are military our military need to do before it's too late

>> greater danger facing us in cyberspace goes beyond

crime and it goes beyond harrassment. a cyberattack perpetrated by nation-states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack on 9/11. such a destructive cyber-terrorist attack could virtually paralyze the nation. jenna: gives you something to think about, doesn't it? that was defense secretary leon panetta talking about cyber attacks linked to countries like china, russia and iran saying u.s. banks have already been hit and we need to defend our nation's networks before critical elements of our infrastructure are targeted. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live from the pentagon. interesting comparison to 9/11. why did mr. panetta choose this moment at this time to issue a warning.

>> reporter: the secretary believes this is the pre-9/11 moment when it comes to potential of a cyber-terrorist attack. his real message seems to have been for iran. >> potential aggressors should be aware that the united states has the capacity to locate them, and to hold them accountable for their actions that may try to harm america. >> reporter: the pentagon is spending $3 billion a year on cybersecurity but panetta's message was really to other nations about the u.s. military's offensive capability when it comes to cyber, jenna. jenna: something really interesting happened when he gave this talk. he described previous attacks that were classified. did he say which country was behind some of these attacks? >> reporter: he did not but in talking to former and current u.s. defense officials all you had to do was read between the lines. >> iran has also undertaken

a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage. >> reporter: the recent denial of service attack on bank of america is believed to have been a response to recent u.s. and international sanctions against iran's oil industry. the cyber attacks that struck aramco, saudi arabia's state oil company and similarly struck qatar's national gas producer are largely believed to have eminated from iran. the secretary referred to those two or three incidents in his speech. these two allies, aramco and rssgas were temporarily paralyzed that wiped out files in network computers and replaced them, jenna with an icon of a burning american flag. jenna: jennifer griffin live from the pentagon. jennifer, thank you. jon: a lot of new reaction

today to the first and only vice-presidential debate of this campaign season. vice president joe biden and congressman paul ryan slugging it out last night in kentucky, giving millions of americans the kind of fiery faceoff they really didn't get to see when the presidential contenders squared off. president obama took a lot of criticism for what was widely dubbed as a lackluster performance in denver last week. so did his chief surrogate stop the bleeding? we'll ask monica crowley, mocks cues contributor and radio talk show host and julie roginsky, former advisor to democratic senator frank lautenberg of new jersey. bleeding stopped, julie. >> i think what biden had to do and i think he did it effectively and convinced democratic base and democrats were disheartened by last week's performance of president obama he would stand up and fight and fight to make clear what the american people what the democratic party values were and what these two men,

obama and biden would do to make sure they understood where the priorities laid. the democratic base would be to get energyized. jon: you might be very surprised you agree with karl rove and karl rove said he had to appeal to the democratic base to restoke their enthusiasm. paul ryan had to get to undecided voters. >> there lies the rub. biden was tasked last night with trying to re-energize a very dispirited liberal base. julie is right about that. i think he accomplished that to some degree. the question at what cost because his behavior was so surreal and so rude and soit kaf the cost turning off and alienating key swing voters women and independents. >> i will say this, you had a "cbs poll" right after the debate of undecided voters, people not made up their mind which is very small, small portion. electorate.

by 50-32% margin, those voters believed joe biden won the debate. that is something very key. >> except there were four or five other snap polls. >> not of undecided voters. >> undecided voters cnn. >> cnn had totality of voters. >> the problem gets to what we're talking about what biden's mission was last night. if you're incumbent party and you're still worried about the base with three weeks to go before the general election you're in really tough shape. >> i'm not sure he was worried about the base. >> you just said that was the whole show last night. >> no. no. energizing the base. wasn't getting the base to exactly support, wasn't worried about the base not dropping off and coming out to vote. the base was dispirited because president obama, i thought president obama did not come out and defend in full throated way what the debase wanted to defend you concluding myself. doesn't mean the base is staying home or dispirited. today the base is not dispirited the by what joe biden did.

however president obama has to come out next tuesday and seal the deal. if he doesn't, everything joe biden side will not matter. jon: when congressman ryan the sitting vice president, a guy in the senate for 36 years, i know you're under a lot of duress to regain some ground here but, seemed like a pretty effective putdown to that role that he had been tasked with. >> yeah, no, exactly. think the american people understand that. and again if you are the sitting party, and you control the white house and your vice president is still at this late date trying to rally your base you have got some problems. that is why it freed up paul ryan to speak to those independent voters, to speak to women, to speak to undecideds and make his message very clear. >> except that paul ryan, once again never came through with any specifics. i can pretend i have a five-point plan to take you to mars unless i give you to specifics how you will do that. you will not believe me. he did not answer at all what deductions they were going to plug. how they would replace obamacare to cover uninsured people. what they would do about

medicare vouchers. they obfuscated, obfuscated. they can't give specifics because if they do the poll numbers. >> that is projections coming from the left, coming from obama who has not detailed what he would do in second term. >> which know what he has done. we know what he has done. he has a 4-year record. 4-year record to run on. >> hold on. the republican ticketings both governor romney and paul ryan put out very specific plans, pro-growth economic policies. regulatory reform, entitle rerecall to. hard to do it in a two minute segment during a debate but they have put it out whereas the white house put out no -- >> one loophole they would close right now? one they chro close to close the budget gap. they haven't detailed one. please name one. jon: one thing, one specific thing i found actually pretty disturbing last night. you can talk about the vice president mugging his way through, you know, certain parts of the debate but when they were talking about libya, and four americans who died there, this is what joe biden looked like.

watch. >> this benghazi issue would be a tragedy in and of itself but unfortunately it is indicative of a broader problem and that is what we're watching on our tv screens is the unraveling of the obama foreign policy. which is making it more chaotic and us less safe. jon: i mean we just had an ambassador and three other americans killed in guz gauze and the vice president goes into that grin, is that, is that appropriate, julie? >> i don't know, i don't think the grin was directed toward deaths in libya. the grin was directed at absurd statement by paul ryan that this administration hasn't done anything toward terrorism. this administration got bin laden. this administration taken out god knows how many terrorists. not that wanted bin laden dead or alive around proceeded a to invade a country where bin laden wasn't. had the steel resolve to get bin bin. when paul ryan sitting there as congressman has temeritity

saying president hasn't done anything to get terrorists. jon: no, what he said our policy in libya is unraveling. >> look, first of all when the president is arguing somehow he decimated al qaeda when all the evidence is now to the contrary is a blatant falsehood. but secondly look, the part of the problem for biden and way he carried himself, he didn't just smile and giggle at that inappropriate moment in libya which is turning into huge scandal for the administration but laughing about iran and nuclear weapon. he was laughing through tax policy. every single major challenge he was laughed about i had this inappropriate smirk or laughter. what that tells you he either so unstable as a man shouldn't be one heart beat away from the presidency or he and his boss are fundamentally unserious about the challenges facing america. jon: monica crowley, julie roginsky, great discussion. thath thank you both. jenna: new details in the deadly meningitis outbreak a

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that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. jenna: right now major developments in the nationwide meningitis outbreak. the death toll now standing at 14 with at least 170 sickened across 11 states. in an outbreak linked to those contaminated steroid shots we've been talking about so much. the pharmaceutical company at the center of this crisis is lawyering up as we see what could be the first of a wave of lawsuits. jonathan serrie is live in atlanta with the latest on all of this. jonathan, what about the lawsuits? >> reporter: hi, jenna, this lawsuit was filed by a minnesota woman who received epidural injections of this potentially contaminated steroid she was using to treat lower pain. barbie puro. has yet to received a official fungal meningitis notice but however her lawsuit claims she suffered

headaches and nausea for a week after she receive shots containing medication from the new england compounding center. according to the lawsuit, necc was negligent because they failed to use reasonable care, when they designed, tested, manufactured and marketed and sold doses of the acetate. miss puro is seeking unspecified damages for the herself and other minnesota residents who claimed to have occurred bodily injury, emotional distress and medical expenses as a result of this allegedly contaminated medication. this class-action lawsuit filed in federal court is on behalf of patients in minnesota but remember, minnesota is just one of 23 states that received potentially contaminated shipments from the specialty pharmacy. already meningitis cases reported in 11 of those states. the new england compounding center could face additional

lawsuits from patients and also from government officials. the massachusetts attorney general's office has announced it is ininvestigating the contamination. the company, the pharmacy in question has hired paul sorell. a prominent boston criminal defense attorney specializing in health care law. jenna. jenna: we'll continue to watch that. that is very interesting development, jonathan, thank you. jon: we'll continue our analysis of the vice-presidential debate. if you thought the debate was fierce last night, wait until you see this. two candidates facing off in a congressional race get so physical the police had to step in. [shouting] @

jenna: right now some new

developments in the search for a missing 10-year-old girl. colorado police now say it may take longer than expected to identify a body found this week. they will not say if investigators believe that these remains are those of jessica ridgeway, the little girl you see on your screen. she vanished last week while walking to school. meantime the fbi is urging residents in the area where she disappeared to keep an eye out for anyone behaving strangely. >> any kind of unusual behavior between last friday and today. somebody who is maybe very engaged in the media coverage of this particular investigation and maybe they're a little annoyed by all the coverage and if that behavior is not normal for them we'd like to know about it. jenna: dan springer live from westminster, colorado, with more. dan, what are we expecting today? >> reporter: jenna, it has been a grim, long wait for everyone, the family included i'm sure. we're expected to get later today official word from the police whether the body

found wednesday was that of jessica ridgeway. because the body was not found intact the only way to get a positive identification is through dna testing that is going on yesterday and presumably through today. the park where the body was discovered by hikers was an active crime scene all day as police search for more clues and evidence. they have a lot of evidence they're not sharing with the media. we know that because they quickly cleared jessica's family and announced she was abducted by a stranger something rare despite all media coverage cases get. the fbi is involved and working on a profile and asking for the public's help. >> we assume this person is a male. statistically speaking that is normally the way this would go. that's why we're calling this person he. if he has exhibited different behavior. if he had acted differently. and we ask for the public's help to continue to monitor those tip lines. >> reporter: and according to fbi statistics in cases where somebody has been

missing, a stranger abduction, for more than three days, 70% of the time they end up being murdered. jenna? jenna: we'll continue to watch this story. dan, thank you. jon: a fox news alert. and emergency crews on the scene of an explosion in colorado. a home completely leveled in the castle rock area. that's about 30 miles south of denver. harris faulkner has the story from our new york newsroom. harris? >> reporter: jon, as the story is breaking we're getting first pictures in. we want to bring in the video to see for the very first time. just catastrophic, this neighborhood. these are some beautiful large homes that are around it too. first things first, the people who neighbors say were inside the home, what i'm trying to confirm. apparently five, four of them children, injured hospitalized right now. so we don't know the extent of their injuries. from what the neighbors are saying everybody was able to escape. from what they could see, on their feet. that is good news if those

reports turn out to be absolutely accurate. does not appear they're doing any sort of debris search or anything like that. look at the catastrophic damage. neighbors say they smelled gas, some form of gas right before this house exploded. people as far as away as five miles say their houses were shaking. i want you to take a look at the siding on the houses next door and the way the concussion from the power of this pulled complete siding and just put chunks of debris inside neighboring homes. quite a bit of damage we're told to houses across the street and next door. we'll continue to follow this. hopefully the story will continue to hold that the five people who are out have nonlife-threatening injure. that is blessing. jon: if that turns out to be the case that is miracle. harris faulkner. thanks. jenna: vice president biden and congressman paul ryanf jabs including over afghanistan. who had the better plan.

we'll ask someone who hat a front seat to one of the most extraordinary battles in the entire war

jenna: plenty of fireworks along with lots of tkpwreupls an grins and grimacess. who won? and does style trump substance. we'll tell you how workers could be affected by who wins the white house. and talk about passionate political debates, this one way over-the-top, sherman versus berman. i ain't making that up. the whole story and breaking on news on a whole brand-new hour of "happening now." both candidates coming out swinging, both sides claim a victory. the two campaigns set their sights on key battleground states after last night's heated vice presidental debate. hi, everyone, i'm jenna lee. it's grit to have you today. both sides say they won.

jon: isn't that surprising? they would never do that in politics would they? i'm jon scott. it was a hard-hitting night. the sparks were flying but a lot can happen between now and november 6th, so the candidates are wasting no time getting back on the campaign trail. vice president biden has an event in congressman ryan's home state in wisconsin. everyone is talking about last night's fiery debate. it started off with serious talk about the attack on our consulate in libya. listen. >> it took the president two weeks to acknowledge that this was a terrorist attack. he went to the u.n. and in his speech at u.n. six times he talked about the youtube video. >> the intelligence community told us that. as they learned more facts about exactly what happened they changed their assessment. jon: the heat got hotter. things got sparky when they sparked over their plans for medicare. >> their ideas are old and their ideas are bad and they eliminate

the guarantee of medicare. >> here is the problem. they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar turning medicare into a piggy bank for obamacare. their own actuary from the administration said one out of six hospital and nursing homes will go out of business as a result of this. 7.4million seniors are projected lose the immediate toda medicare advantage they have. >> more people signed up for medicare advantage after the change. >> mr. vice president, i know -- mr. vice president i know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground. [laughter] >> but i think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other. jon: senior nation correspondent john roberts is live at a romney rally in richmond, virginia. i'm guessing, john, that both campaigns are saying they won. >> absolutely.

both campaigns fo with high praise for their respective candidates. both campaigns aggressively attacking the other over what was said. the romney campaign going after joe biden about his comments about the consulate in benghazi. state department officials testified before a congressional hearing that they had turned down requests for additional security at that consulate. contrast that with what vice president biden said last evening. >> we weren't told they wanted more security there. we did not know they wanted more security again. and by the way we were told exactly, we said exactly what the intelligence community told us, that they knew, that was the assessment. and as the intelligence community changed their view we made it clear they changed their view. >> at the same time right now as this event is going on the white house is saying, well, wait a second, while the say the department knew about the requests the president and the vice president didn't know about

them, which might seem to indicate some sort of massive disconnect in the post 9/11 efforts to get all of the government he tk departments talking to each other about potential terrorist threats, jon. jon: what else does the obama campaign have a problem with? they are taking particular issue issue with something congressman ryan said. >> they are going after today 20 hard across the board cut in income tax rates. building on bill clinton's lecture that the math just doesn't add up and pointing out when he was asked about it directly at last night's vice presidental debate paul ryan couldn't or wouldn't give more specific details. >> we want to work with the congress on how best to achieve this. that means successful. >> no specific -- >> what we're saying lower tax rates 20%, start with the wealthy. >> you guarantee this math will

add up. >> absolutely. six studies have guaranteed that this math adds up. >> while the vice presidental debate rarely moves the needle in terms of polls perhaps what we saw last night has given us an indication of some of the major issues that will be on the table during tuesday's presidential debate. and that one certainly will matter. jon: you're with the romney campaign in roeufp monday now. what does their schedule look like in the next couple of days. >> the numbers seem to be moving in the governor's direction at this point. they are headed back to ohio where governor romney spent a couple of days, he'll be joined by paul ryan. on sunday and monday he'll be down for debate preparation before heading to new york and hofstra university. jon: john roberts in richmond, virginia, with the romney campaign. john, thank you. >> facts matter. all this loose talk about them all they have to do is get to enrich uranium in a certain amount and they have a weapon, not true. >> he'll tell you about

vouchers, he'll say all these things to try and scare people. >> that is a bunch of malarkey. >> malarkey? it's the new en sroeug word. do you think it'vogue word. do you think it's going to come back in. both gentlemen questioning statements that's where malarkey came in. doug mcelway is live in washington. we have our own fact checkers. i would never use that word on any of your reports. >> so i can state for the record i didn't do the fact checking, that would be malarkey. it was our brain room that did the fact checking from last night. last night's debate focused heavily on entitlements prompting paul ryan to attack obamacare for costing harm to seniors who use medicare advantage. >> 7.4 million seniors are projected to lose the medicare advantage coverage they have,

that is a $3,200 medicare cut. >> true or you false? it is true. they wrote, quote, we estimate in 2017 when the medicare advantage provisions will be fully phased in enrollment in medicare advantage plans will be lower by about 50% from it's projected level of 14.8 million under the prior law to 7.4 million under the new law. all right. moving along now. another statement to fact check from paul ryan regarding this often repeated romney campaign contention that obamacare takes $716 billion away from medicare. listen up. >> obama care takes $716 billion from medicare to spend on obamacare, even their own chief actuary at medicare backs this up. he says you can't spend the same dollar twice, you can't claim that this money goes to medicare and obama care. >> that also is true. a july 2012 estimate from the congressional budget office said repealing the affordable care

act would increase spending by $716 billion between 2013 and 222. moving on now. a statement from biden from last night's debate regarding the affects of sanctions placed on iran in an attempt to convince it to stop its nuclear weapons program. here is the vice president. >> the ayatollah sees that there are 50% fewer exports of oil. he sees the currency going into the tank. he sees the economy going in a free fall, and he sees the world for the first time totally united in opposition to him getting a nuclear weapon. >> that also is true. bloomberg reported on august 2nd of this year that shipments from iran have plunged by 1.2 million barrels a day or 52% since the sanctions banning the purchase, transport, financing and insuring of iranian crude bee gone on july 1st. whether the sanctions have in anyway delayed iran's progress in enriching uranium is

difficult to ascertain. more fact checking to come and we'll examine some of the malarkey as well as the truisms. jenna: thank you, doug and to our brain room as well. we could not do this without them. thank you. >> so true. jon: fox news alert now white house press secretary jay carney briefing reporters just now on the murder of our diplomate in libya. here is our owned henry minutes ago. >> you were saying from this mode yum to the president and vice president have never been briefed tha about the the fact that there was a ned for more security. they were never in the daily briefing, never briefed. >> matters of security personnel are appropriately discussed and decided upon at the state department by those responsible for it. obviously it is the case that everyone responsible for national security in this administration and those i believe who are knowledgeable about it on capitol hill have long been aware of the fact that

libya is a dangerous place,. >> why did the vice president say that he and the president were not briefed? >> what you are doing,ed, and i know you're conscious of it is actually saying something that was not said last night. what the vice president said was that -- >> we weren't told we wanted more security there, that's what he said. >> an is talking -- >> he was never briefed. >> he was never briefed that nor security was needed. >> there was a four and a half hour public hearing where this issue was talked about, where the very specifics for requests for security personnel were made, adjudicated at the state department. unless you were listening to another briefing that i wasn't. >> i just want to be clear, it was never in the presidential daily brief or anything like that. >> i'm not going to sit and talk to you. >> you're not giving us the the details. >> no i'm not. matters of how many personnel are assigned to embassies and consulates and other diplomatic facilities are not decided at the white house, they are decided at the state

department. >> you can see this issue is rapidly reaching the poeul boiling point. the white house spokesman there on the defensive about what the president and vice president knew about requests for greater security and our diplomatic compound in benghazi, libya. this of course in the aftermath of those awful murders of our ambassador and three other americans one month ago. we are still monitoring jay carney's briefing at the white house. if he makes more news we'll bring it to you. jenna: they are still exploring the question. why did this happen, who is responsible? how do we prevent it from happening again. all of those questions unanswered four weeks after the event in benghazi. it's something we are watching closely as it develops. the race for the white house is kicking into high gear and that adds a twist to awful this. you have a jam-packed week of new job numbers and a vice presidental debate. we are going to be told who won the week. jon: the war in afghanistan a key topic last night.

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jenna: offense mitt romney at a campaign event event in wisconsin. it to a toss upstate. it will be interesting to see if we have any affect from the vice presidental debate as he is moving towards another debate past tuesday. he's proud of paul ryan, he says he did a good job last night. we'll bring you any news-making comments out of this event. if you'd like to watch it it's on foxnews.com. jon: after a strong performance in his first presidential debate most people said governor romney

won last week. after encouraging and controversial job numbers who came out victorious this week. let's talk to bob beckel a former democratic campaign manager, cohost of the 5 as you well know on fox news channel. ed rollins is a fox news contributor, former campaign manager for michelle bachmann for president. your take on the debate. >> it was not pretty, but biden did what he needed to do. i think ryan got the notion that politics is not miss porter's finishing school. this is a tough ball game. and biden took it to him. >> it was bide between being biden which was rude, obnoxious, partisan and liberal and it reinforced guys like bob that now kneel good about their side. at end of the day if you liked biden it was good, if you didn't like biden it reinforced you on the other side. both got the base, i don't know what it did for the swing

voters. >> it was a base debate no question about it. jon: if president obama got so, you know, plowed under in that debate by mitt romney, everybody said that at least vice president biden had to keep the democratic ticket in the game. did he accomplish that? >> absolutely. and on issues that are important to them, medicare, the fact that these guys don't really have a tax plan, they keep saying they do. he got ryan -- with the help from the mod toda moderator i might add backed up and not able to answer questions on taxes. obama had other problems this week. when it comes to the debate it was a good way to end the week. jon: one friend of mine asked me, you know, ryan is going up against two combatants here the moderator as well as the vice president. did you see it that way? >> i saw she certainly wasn't a good referee, i think to a certain extent the more biden went on, though, i think that those of us that aren't big biden fans just got more agitated. my sense is it worked out for democrats, it didn't workout for

those independent voters. jon: what is that old line thou dost protest too much. he complained time and time again that he didn't have enough time. he didn't get enough time. an had a minute and a half more than paul ryan. >> that's the old rules of debate. you always complain you don't have enough time even though you have 15 more times than the other guy. jon: really? >> you explain about it and the audience says, yeah he didn't get enough time. >> i think when it comes to the week, i think the combination of momentum romney had coming out of this debate, the fact that this didn't stop the bleeding, the closing of the polls, the big crowds that romney is getting i think we really have a competitive race. i think i give him the edge for the week with. jon: you think romney won the week. >> romney won the week. >> if it was the debate alone i'd say obama won the debate. coupled with libya and the problems that came out of there i think it's a wash for obama.

he did not win the week, did not lose it. i think it was a tie pretty much. jon: we'll have to get that chalkboard up and see how this campaign has been going. thanks very much, bob beckel,ed rollins. jenna: new polls putting a critical swing state in play. governor mitt romney slashing the president's lead. what is behind this shift we'll ask a veteran political expert on the ground in michigan. also, one last journey for a space icon. we are going to take you along on the final ride for the space shuttle endeavour. when you have diabetes...

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jenna: in this razor close race for the white house we are taking a close look at the

battleground states that could hold the key to 1600 pennsylvania avenue. today we are looking at michigan, the wolf rean state of course where mitt romney's father served as governor and voters there have picked the winner in six of the last eight presidential elections. pretty good track record there. michigan in focus because of the automarket, because of the bailout as well. we'll talk about that in a second. the unemployment rate is still 9.4%, so well above the national average. take a look at the number of visits since april the president has not been to michigan once, you see mitt romney making a few visits there. as far as some statistic us should know about 16 electoral votes out of 270. 270 that magic number. here is a look at the polls. the polls for the "real clear politics" average, you see 40% to the president, 44 to mitt romney, thereabouts. joining us now bill ballinger the edda toefr inside michigan politics. we last talked with him about

three weeks ago. bill, three weeks ago it looks like mitt romney cut the lead that the president had according to the "real clear politics" average in half. it was a pretty sizable swing inside that state. does the momentum feel like it's moving towards romney a little bit? >> yes it does. no question romney has improved his position from three weeks ago, the debate was really the single factor that did it. neither candidate has personally visited the state, and i really think for romney to win the state or so many very close he has to make a personal appearance here some time between now and november 6th. so far he's only sent in surrogates, paul ryan was here earlier in the week, ann romney is here today but romney himself has not shown up since last summer. jenna: sometimes when pundits talk about michigan it's sort of like a one tphoerpbgs there is the auto industry there, the auto bailout, a lot of union

workers, therefore that's just what is going to determine who the folks in michigan vote for. tell us a little bit more about the dynamics at play in the state, bill, is it really that similar tell? >> well, i think that does over simplify it a little bit. you've got to remember republicans won five straight elections between 1972 and 1988 in michigan at the presidential level. now they can't seem to ever win. they haven't won since 1988. it was close in 2004, john kerry only beat george w. bush by 3.5 points in michigan. but when john mccain walked away from michigan with a month to go in 2008 and obama ended up winning the state here by 17 points i think it resulted in michigan not getting the love as a battleground state that it used to have. jenna: it's really interesting. you're saying that mitt romney cannot repeat the same mistake that john mccain made in his election. when you say that mitt romney has to come to the state and a

pier, we know there are a lot of places he could go. where do you think he'd have the most impact, any candidate if they decided michigan is the place they are heading for next week, let's say. >> i'd say probably in the metropolitan detroit area. maybe mccomb county, western wayne county just outside detroit. jenna: what is the message, bill, that they would have to bring? >> i think first of all mitt romney would have to be very concern about what he's going to say about the auto industry at this point, answer more questions from a the democrats about his famous new york times editorial four years ago where he said let gm go bankrupt. i think he has to mind his p's and q's but he's got to remind people of what you said a few minutes ago and that is our unemployment rate is higher than the national average. we are up between 9 and 10%, so jobs and the economy are the critical issue and the message of the romney campaign is, i'm

the guy to come in and fix that problem. jenna: just really quick here, bill, does the president risk the same potential conclusion that john mccain came to the last time around if he just doesn't appear in the state? will that affect voters? >> i don't think so, because mitt romney is giving him cover. neither one has been here, that is the problem. whichever one shows up and makes a play here i think has a chance to carry the state. i mean this is only a 4-point spread in the polls right now. jenna: that's right, bill. it's great to have your expertise and look forward to talking to you before election day thank you very much, sir. >> thank you. jon: one liners and a lot of sparring in last night's presidential debate. please don't interrupt me jenna. jenna: i'll try not to, every day it's a struggle, jon. jon: the candidates shook hands, came out fighting, looking to score points. it's the audience that really counts, undecided voters. did either guy change any minds? plus, you thought the vp debate

got testy. wait until you see what happened with these two candidates.

jenna: hopefully we'll get preliminary numbers in the next couple of hours as to the vice presidental debate. both hoping it will be a game changer. in today's "wall street journal" editor serbgs ib writes this. it's likely that partisans of

both political parties came away pleased. it's also likely that independents who tire of the fighting in washington were less so. bill maguern is a columnist for the "wall street journal" and a speech writer for george w. bush as well. what do you think about that, both sides think they have won but both sides potentially could lose potential voters. >> joe biden showed you could be aggressive in defending the obama record and challenging the romney-ryan plans. he also showed how not to be aggressive. so i think each side can claim victory. the poll shows it's fairly close. i think mr. ryan proved that he was vice presidental material, but i think what people are going to remember is the vice president's mannerisms. that's what people are talking about, that's what can be pari paritied and so forth and they were very distracting. jenna: how do you think this

conversation we heard last night will affect the conversation moving forward, the strategy of either party going into the debate next tuesday in new york. >> i think it will show president obama that he can be forceful. it will show him don't be forceful in a wacky way because it will take away from it. he is the president, he has to have some kind of r way it will make him a lot more forceful and energetic in trying to attack mr. romney about his plans. jenna: if you know this is the model that potentially could be coming towards mitt romney then how would you advice mitt romney? >> here is the thing. i think it will be the model, governor romney will face a more energetic president. i think there is a risk for the president here. one he has a lot of bad hands to play on a lot of issue. by being more aggressive with mr. romney it opens the door for mr. romney to be a lot more

aggressive against obama. i don't think he was aggressive, he was dominant and respectful. he left a lot of things off the table, harsher criticisms that they can open the door up. jenna: we have initial polls the cbs news poll that did show that for uncommitted voters they had a better impression of joe biden than they did paul ryan. it was interesting when you looked at the broader numbers and looked at the actual president it's equal post debate along the bottom there, divided between the president, governor romney and still undecided. so what do you make of that? >> i'd say two things. one is this gives you and i something to talk about for this while, it fills the "wall street journal." jenna: thank goodness we'd have nothing to say. >> the moment the next presidential debate comes this will all disappear. no one remembers the vice presidental debates of the postl past or specifics. what they may do is a "saturday

night live" kind of thing. what is the easiest thing to remember, vice president biden. i found it very distracting to have martha raddets be the focus of this. the commission on presidential debates said we want less moderator, more debate. i'm not accusing her being by as. but i think it's unusual we have a vice presidental debate in an important election and one person gets to ask the questions, and they are trying to persuade her. mr. ryan should decide what are the issues that he wants to go on mr. biden on and mr. biden should decide what issues he wants to go after mr. ryan on. jenna: that changes the perception.

>> and the men weren't looking at each other. >> the town hall style on tuesday, what would be your advice and strategy to any candidate facing that format. do you walk up to the person who is asking the question? >> you have to be very careful with anything that looks unusual. i think governor romney will do quite well in that setting. it is harder for president obama if he wants to be aggressive to take a question from a third person over here and turn and put it back -- i it makes it a little harder to do. jenna: we'll watch for that. thank you. jon: this one was no ask it, something you don't see very often a nasty congressional race in california gets physical, harris has that from the breaking news desk. march reus. it started out as just pleasantly bitter. two house democrats running for one seat after redistricting out in california. suddenly one of them seems to kind of bear-hug the other.

[shouting] >> reporter: that is a pretty tight grip he has on him, we understand from the audience, enough for the guy being hugged to say very loud lease, and you can hear him at one point on the tape saying, get out of my face. the taller guy is representative brad sherman, 57-year-old the ranking democrat. the smaller in stature, 71-year-old howard berman. they are fighting over the 30th district seat. it's one of the most expensive house contests in the country right now. let's take a watch again. i want you to notice berman appears to be startled. a sheriff's deputies joins them from behind on stage to break it up. these men are arguing over politics, people, a bill as we understand on an immigration-related issue. you'll notice the crowd cheering and jeering. howard berman's campaign released the videotaped confrontation. and sherman says quote the debate was not conducted at the

highest level. i regret my part in allowing emotions distract from the exchange of views end quote. jon: big party. big party. harris faulkner thank you. jenna: next the author of the book "into the fire" an account of the most extraordinary battle in the and began war. he tells us his extraordinary story and weighs in on afghanistan, next. oh no, not a migraine now.

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to be there for them when they need us. [car alarm blaring] call now and also ask about our 24/7 support and service. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? >> we do agree with the timeline and the transition, but what we -- what any administration will do in 2013 is assess the situation to see how best to complete this timeline. >> we will leave in 2014. >> what we do not want to do is give our allies reason to trust us less and our enemies -- we don't want to embolden our enemies to hold and wait out for

us. >> we have soldiers and marines, we have afghan forces murdering our forces over there. the taliban is do you think taking advantage of this timeline? >> look, the taliban -- what we've found out, and you saw it in iraq, martha, unless you set a timeline baghdad, in the case of iraq, and kabul in the case of afghanistan will not step up. they are happy to let us continue to do the job. international security forces to do the job. the only way they step up is say, fellows, we're leave, we've trained you, step up. step up. jenna: a very important conversation there. the vice president and congressman ryan debating what's been referred to as our exit strategy in afghanistan more and decade after the war started. our next guest has a very unique perspective on what is going on in afghanistan right now. he sp-pbt a considerable amount of time on the ground, most

recently last month embedded with our marines in dangerous area, hell monday process. helmand process. he is author of "into the fire" the firsthand account of the most extraordinary battle in the afghan battle. he's also a marine serving in vietnam. once a marine, always a marine. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. jenna: we heard from both sides, tell us what 2014 really means nor afghanistan. >> wow. well i look at it this way. our troops for the past year have been out there patrolling with the afghan shoulders so they can take over the mission. now because some of us have been killed by afghan shoulders we are not patrolling jointly with them the way we used to, so i can see very good reason for gradually and quietly withdrawing our troops and

letting the afghans take over before we pull everybody out, but i think vice president biden was wrong, i think he misspoke again, because i've heard nobody say we are getting out completely in 2014. i can see very good reasons for getting down to about 20,000 troops and cutting the costs, but completely coming out of there when we still have al-qaida trying to kill us? that would be a very, very dumb idea. jenna: will we ever win there? >> whrasee winning? what's winning? look at us and look at ho*uf we'vhow far we have come. if i told you in 2001 just after we lost 2,000 civilians killed, that we would not be hit again for another 12 years would you have believed me?

but we weren't, because i think we've done much better at keeping the terrorists on the defense, and that is working. jenna: let's talk a little bit about what the troops are dealing with every day. your description in a recent article in the national review was provocative to say the least. you were talking about one particular company last year, where this group had faced 300ied's and that men that were patrolling in this area that you were at actually had tur turn turnaquits a attached to the outside of their legs if their legs were blown off. you said there may be less of a risk. you talked compassionately about our troops there, mr. west and i'd like you to talk to us a little bit about what they are dealing with now and again what the affect is about the talk about our strategy in

afghanistan is on the ground there for our troops. >> it's like i'm out with my grand kids, and you don't want to see any of them hurt, and if you can't tell the corporal what his mission is, then you better rethink what you have him doing out there. i think we've got even pretty much to that point. we've done as much as we can, and every day these young men are going out and going into these mine fields, single file. and i keep asking myself, what is the mission? the mission now is to hand it off to the afghans. so i would like to see us pull us back from those dangerous patrols and let the afghans sort out what their lines are going to be while we are still there, not wait until 2014 to do it. but i have to say that the brave reothe brave reof our men

sometimes gets overlook. if when you think you have to strap a tournaquit to the back of your leg and you still go on patrol day after day after day you have the right stuff. jenna: i think i'll leave our viewers with that thought. it's nice to have you and we look forward to having you back. >> thank you. jenna: thank you.

jenna: for anyone who may be missed the debate last notice and saw how contentious it was the morning headlines tell a story don't they? take a look at the cover of "the new york times." biden and ryan quarrel aggressively in debate offering contrast is how "the new york times" put it. the "wall street journal," sharp jabs dominate combative vp debate. there are the pictures with the points and the reaction. biden and ryan turn up the heat

on the cover of the usa today paper. and the daily news here in new york city, smiling joe bites back. and then there is baseball. also on the cover of that, also important. jon: i'm sure joe biden's dentist was very happy last night he got a lot of coverage. speaking of mainstream media there are new concerns over coverage as hearings into the murders of americans in libya seem to be ignored by many in the press. it was more than a month ago the terrorists stormed the u.s. consulate in benghazi killing four diplomats and their suppor. this week congress held hearings on the security situation there in the run up to that attack. witnesses revealing stunning new details, including claims that requests for more security were turned down by the administration. isn't this something you'd expect the media to cover? let's talk about it with kristen powers a daily beast columnist and fox news contributor. judith miller is a pulitzer prize prize winning investigator

and fox news contributor. judith you and i were talking about this in the green room. very often watching congressional hearings for me is like watching paint dry. watching what was taking place -- you know in those what happened in benghazi hearings was absolutely rivetting and your old paper "the new york times" could barely find a way to mention it. >> they managed to mention it, jon, on page 3, a hearing in which it was disclosed for the first time that the regional security officer had repeatedly asked for morey enforcements, better security and had been turned down by two people, neither of whom had ever been to libya. this hearing was filled with revelations about security lapses and yet "the new york times" managed to put it on page 3 with a refer on the front page. this was so outrage us that even the paper's own omsbudsman march get sullivan was forced to write

a blog, page 3? how do you explain this? how do you explain the under coverage of this and she was told by thed today toers there werthe editors there were six better stories that day. jon: hard to believe. the major attack, the first murder of our ambassador in 30 years, and it rates page 3 coverage? >> yeah. it could be one of two things. it could be one that they don't want to highlight something that harms obama, or it could be that they just don't care about this issue. i'll defer to judy on it she knows the inner workings of the paper better than i do. i think that this would have been front-page news if this was the bush administration. and it would have been front-page news frankly from the very beginning all the way through. this is just sort of consistent with the fact that they are not -- are not covering this. or really expressing very much interest in it at all. also there is the fact that last night what joe biden said during

the debate and earlier on fox they playeded henry questioning jay carney about this claiming the administration did not know that there had been "made for security, and i guess the dense now is that the white house didn't know. when joe biden says we didn't know, he's saying the administration didn't know. and we know that that is false. we know that from the hearing, and so, you know, there is a lot here that it seems like people should be following up on, people -- i mean thank god for ed henry but other people should be following up on it as well. jon:ed does a great job. a lot of conservatives think that the obama administration did not want to admit that this was a terrorist attack. they sent susan rice on the sunday shows to talk about this spontaneous demonstration over the anti-islam film that built up in the streets. they didn't want to do that because they thought it would jeopardize the election. are the media being complicit in that storyline, at least some in the media?

>> i think the media are being complicit in that they are not following up as ed henry did, as catherine herridge has done on her extraordinary reporting on this. they are not pressing the administration about who knew what when. anthony cortisman, a great analyst had a wonderful article saying, accidents, terrible things are going to happen when you're out there fight are for freedom when you're trying to do the kind of work the united states is trying to do, but when things go wrong the american people are entitled to know why they went wrong, and how they went wrong, and the administration has consistently pushed back that question, it doesn't want to answer those questions because that would interfere with the narrative that we have of an administration which is so tough on national security on strong on foreign policy. jon: this is the kind of discussion we get into each and every weekend. tomorrow at 3:00pm on fox news channel join us for a full hour of news watch, we'll be covering

the coverage of the week. kristen powers, kwraoud de miller, thank you both. jenna: now two guys not vice presidental candidates with lots of time on their hands. 800 hours and 20,000 pieces later this is what they have to show for it the bat cave, lego style, next. ceiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

speed-reading check this out, something fun for this friday. it's a batcave. what batcave is really complete without batman and robin speedier that's right. jenna: it comes with a beautiful, con theme, it was unveiled at the comic-con